Magic of Model Railroading Exhibit - April 6 2021 Sacramento Railroad Museum

[atsf_arizona]

Hi, all,

I just noted via NMRA's Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/NMRA.org ), that after 10+ years in the making, the "Magic of Model Railroading" exhibit opened on
April 6, 2021, in the Sacramento Railroad Museum in Sacramento, Calif.



See here link to the NMRA Magazine article about this international treasure for all of us Model Railroaders:

Edited on 4/12/21:  Thx team, I reduced the PDF in size, now it's only 7MB instead of the former 113MB.  See here this new link: http://www.aikido-ukemi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Magic-of-Model-Railroading-Sacramento-exhibit-opened-April-2021-0321-exhibitarticle-compressed.pdf

===>  2021/04/13:  NMRA did update their link:  https://www.nmra.org/sites/default/files/museum/21-0321-exhibitarticle.pdf  <== now it's only 592KB.  So that's why their orig link disappeared...

The NMRA posted this article via a public link on their public Facebook page yesterday, but today the original NMRA link doesn't work....  I would expect it's OK to share the article.... I posted the above PDF temporarily on one of my own websites., and I've asked the NMRA to check their original link.... I'll keep you all updated... enjoy the PDF article!

Flickr photo album here showing this $1 Million exhibit - the Calif State Railroad Museum is providing the space at no charge, for all of the 600,000 annual visitors to see.  (The museum has re-opened after having been closed for COVID-19 reasons for a while).   No NMRA dues money was spent to create this exhibit, it was all voluntary fundraising.
See 49  photos of this exhibit here :  https://www.flickr.com/photos/192373853@N06/sets/72157718547893733/

Among the treasured, now preserved for all to see, famous model railroads, is the HOn3 San Juan Central by Malcom Furlow (see my
photo tour of this layout from it's former home in 2007  https://pbase.com/atsf_arizona/coast_tours_san_juan_central   ),



Also as the Flickr photo album shows and the PDF describes, there's the Sn3 rendition of Chama, New Mexico by Peters and Booth of P-B-L, portions of the late Jim Vail's HOn3 layout, shows samples of model railroading of all types, progression of building a layout, all the different skills and things that go into model railroading, and more.  An obvious goal is to exposure many to model railroading... and of course attract new interested model railroaders... as well as celebrate the many, many that have gone before us in the model railroading world.

N scale is well represented via the handiwork of Mike Blumensaadt, MMR, Pacific Coast Region, Coast Division NMRA, who many of you may recognize from his articles in N Scale Railroading and N Scale Magazine
(here's Mike's N scale layout in San Francisco  https://pbase.com/atsf_arizona/x2011_west_layout_tours_mike_blumensaadt_7311  )

I encourage all to read the PDF article about this and celebrate this momentous achievement.  We have dedicated members of the NMRA worldwide
who have contributed tenaciously over the past decade to finally bring this project home. 

All of us as Model Railroaders can be proud of to show all those in our lives who wonder "what it is we actually are doing to lovingly create art in miniature" .

[nkalanaga]

I get a "Page not Found" error on the NMRA PDF link.

[atsf_arizona]

Hmmm, the NMRA's PDF link worked yesterday but not today. 

4/12/21:  Thx for the info on the PDF being too big, I compressed the PDF, this is new link to a copy of the PDF, now only 7MB instead of the former 113MB:

http://www.aikido-ukemi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Magic-of-Model-Railroading-Sacramento-exhibit-opened-April-2021-0321-exhibitarticle-compressed.pdf
 

The NMRA posted this article on their public Facebook page, so I would expect it's OK to share the article.... I posted the PDF in the link above temporarily on one of my own websites.... I've asked the NMRA to check their link.... I'll keep you all updated... enjoy the article!

===>  2021/04/13:  NMRA did update their link:  https://www.nmra.org/sites/default/files/museum/21-0321-exhibitarticle.pdf  <== now it's only 592KB.  So that's why their orig link disappeared...

[nkalanaga]

Yes, it's downloading.  Good-sized file, isn't it?

Finished downloading.  It shouldn't be that big.  111 MB, seven pages, low-resolution photos.  The latest issue of N Scale RRding is 11 MB, 35 pages, and the images are a little higher resolution.  The latest issue of Trainin is 5 MB, 54 pages, and the images are at least as good,  Maybe the NMRA needs a newer version of Acrobat?

[C855B]

... It shouldn't be that big. ... Maybe the NMRA needs a newer version of Acrobat?

It's not the Acrobat version. I played with the PDF and realized every page is a scan of a printed page. I can see process dots in the photos. Every page is a TIFF image, apparently, simply dropped into a PDF document as a container. I reprocessed it for size optimization, and everything turned into mush including the text. If they were true PDF pages, the type would have been vector renders and would have been clear and sharp after running through the optimizer.

The problem is that whomever put the excerpt online did not have access to the original digital artwork, thinking a high-res scan would be sufficient for republishing online. They were wrong. 

[Mark5]

Cool. Hope to make back out that way one of these days. 

[nkalanaga]

Mike:  I could see that they were originally print images, as you said, the dots are obvious.  But I didn't realize that the pages themselves were images.  And TIFFs aren't small files to start with.  Thank you!

[atsf_arizona]

Hi, all, thx for the heads up on the overly-large PDF size.  Above in the original posts, I edited my original PDF that I'd downloaded from the NMRA link, and compressed the PDF using Adobe's cloud-based PDF compressor... I have updated the posts above with this new PDF link, which is only 7MB instead of the former 113MB.  Sorry about that the first time around! 

http://www.aikido-ukemi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Magic-of-Model-Railroading-Sacramento-exhibit-opened-April-2021-0321-exhibitarticle-compressed.pdf

I trust many more now will find the article viewable, about the new "Magic Of Scale Model Railroading" exhibit just opened on April 6, 2021, at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, CA.


===>  2021/04/13:  NMRA did update their link:  https://www.nmra.org/sites/default/files/museum/21-0321-exhibitarticle.pdf  <== now it's only 592KB.  So that's why their orig link disappeared...

[JMaurer1]

Thanks for pointing this out. Since I only live 30 minutes away and never seem to get to the museum enough (especially since the archives have been closed), I'm going to have to visit either this or next weekend and see it myself. Of course the big picture is of John Allen's G&D RR and actually seeing Chama is going to be a treat. Back prior to the 2008 housing collapse, several of the old Sacramento Locomotive Works buildings (former SP yards and erecting shops where the actually built steam loco from scratch) were given to the CSRM with one building reserved to become the model railroad museum (featuring the Lionel collection that was previously donated to the CSRM)...our N scale module group was started so that when the museum was ready to start, we would have a layout almost ready to install there. Of course the housing collapse happened and nothing has been done since but those old buildings aren't going anywhere...maybe some day, we still have hope.

Thanks for posting the information!!! 

[atsf_arizona]

JMauer1, thx for the kind words.  Let us all know what you think if/when you get there to see the exhibit .

Here's a link to a couple photos of the model of Chama, NM, in the Flickr album collection of photos of this Magic of Scale Model RR'ing exhibit ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/192373853@N06/sets/72157718547893733/ ) .
This Sn3 diorama was built by Bill Peters and Jimmy Booth of P-B-L, purveyors of Sn3 equipment.  This layout was displayed for years as P-B-L's demonstration layout at conventions and trade shows.





Here's the 8x10 foot HOn3 San Juan Central by Malcolm Furlow, a Model Railroader project layout from the 1980's. 
It's 5th owner, Charlie Getz, ex-NMRA national president and one of the many drivers behind this exhibit, donated it
as part of this permanent exhibit, thankfully available for anyone to see who visits the Calif State Railroad Museum:



There are other layouts or sections of famous layouts there, including a section of the late Irv Schulz' St. Clair Northern (his ore dock),
there's 2 sections of the late Jim Vail's HOn3, the original John Allen TimeSaver layout as well as the control panels from the
Gorre & Daphetid, a "Wall of Trains" with full-length trains in all scales from Z to large-scale.  Tony Koester's operational CTC machine
is on display and when visitors push a button, the CTC machine comes to life.   And much more.
There is a 40-foot long "Parts Wall" with hundreds of parts and pieces, showing all the skills, joys, and
messages of how to become a model railroader.   You can vicariously see a walk thru at the Flickr photo album
of this Magic of Scale Model RR'ing exhibit ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/192373853@N06/sets/72157718547893733/ )

A formal grand opening will be held post-COVID-19, although it's unknown exactly when that will occur.

In the meantime, the exhibit is to be open when the Calif State Railroad Museum (CSRM) ( https://www.californiarailroad.museum/ ) is open - according to their website they just re-opened in the past week or so.
As far as I can tell, CSRM has not yet updated their website with formal article on the "Magic of Scale Model Railroading" exhibit - good idea to call them if you're planning on going, just to make sure.

Please do visit the CSRM and the exhibit when you can, and please share your reaction when you do.  It's a treasure for all of us.

[dpharris]

Man, will try to get down to see this exhibit. 

[nkalanaga]

John:  Thank you! 

Oddly, compressing it seems to have actually improved the image quality. 

[porkypine52]

AWWWWW........JEEZ     Another place I would like to see if and when I get over to the shaky side of the country.  Model Railroad Clubs--Hobby Shops--Prototypes--and some Home Layouts.   I'm gonna be all over California.  Maybe better plan for an additional week OR TWO.    Now taking the TRAIN from Chicago west to.......

[Dave V]

I would love to go see the San Juan Central in person.

I commented on these photos on Facebook, but I'll repeat myself here:

Art. And I think I really began to appreciate Malcolm’s work so much more when I saw it as art. People who try to look at it as prototypical modeling are missing the point. Here is a three-dimensional rendering of mood, a vibe...one we all know intimately down to our DNA as narrow gauge fans. It’s that--and not the technical aspects of the railroad--I think that makes the man a genius. One simple glance and we are transported to southwestern Colorado to an era most of us never experienced. This in spite of the fact that no scene on the railroad actually represents reality. Artistic genius.

[JMaurer1]

I was able to play with the Timesaver...it was originally donated to the PCR division of the NMRA and they brought it to every meeting. Those 'Baker" couplers, while they didn't look anything close to scale sure worked great for switching! I haven't checked recently, but I used to have the speed record for the Timesaver at one point (love switching!).

Porkypine: Just get a one way ticket...once you are here, the only thing that could ever make you leave is the politics.